Property gallery: Town and country

Country retreat: Hertfordshire. Harmers Green clings to Welwyn Garden City, a mile from the A1, but green fields unroll beyond this three-bedroom cottage, which was once the village post office. It sits beside the village green and is garnished inside with beams, open studwork and fireplaces. Fruit trees and a vegetable patch will feed you in the 80ft garden. It is near the train station from where London King's Cross is 30 minutes away. Cost: £499,950.
Bryan Bishop, 01438 718877 Photograph: Bryan Bishop

Country retreat: Northamptonshire. Grendon village boarders the Castle Ashby estate and there is a dilemma of rustic walks from the door of this £257,500 cottage. Refurbishments have created a third and fourth bedroom in the attic and installed an Aga and Belfast sink in the kitchen and a wood burner in the living room. Primary schooling and draught beer is down the lane and it’s four miles to the station from where London is 40 minutes away.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01604 632991 Photograph: Jackson-Stops

City pad: London. This complex of shops and flats rises from an old east London bomb site. £395,000 buys you a one-bedroom foothold with a balcony and, if you’re lucky, views over the medieval city wall. A shaded courtyard will shelter you from the vigour of surrounding Clerkenwell. Inside the kitchens are fitted with Bosch appliances, the bathrooms are tiled with limestone, and the floors are walnut. It is a bus ride to the West End and a walk to the City.
Currell, 020 7253 2533 Photograph: Currell

City pad: Newcastle. Step out of this listed Georgian building and you are amid the retail seductions of the city centre (NatWest customers don’t even have to leave the building). Back up the grand staircase is your £180,000 one-bedroom apartment, wood-floored, halogen spot-lit and air-conditioned throughout. Bathroom and kitchen are chicly fitted and you can buy the furniture by separate negotiation. There’s no onward chain.
Sanderson Young, 0191 255 0800 Photograph: Sanderson Young

Dream home: Cambridge. One of the few surviving medieval vicarages with a pixie charm that earned it a mention in Pevsner’s Buildings of England. Down the lane are the shops and services (including a primary and secondary school) of this village six miles from Cambridge. A vast brick inglenook dominates the sitting room and open studwork separates it from the beamed dining room. There are three bedrooms and a quarter of an acre of garden.Cost: £440,000.
Cheffins, 01223 214214 Photograph: Cheffins

Bargain of the week: Somerset. In a kinder climate this two-bed cottage in the village of Rode would fetch more than £200,000, but the owners will now content themselves with £169,950. The house stands behind a large front garden and has a farmhouse-style kitchen opening into a sitting room with a Victorian fireplace. Both bedrooms are doubles and the second, up in the attic, is a quaint eyrie with a sloped, beamed ceiling and dormer windows.
Cooper & Tanner, 01373 455060 Photograph: Cooper and Tanner